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Ex-Cop Schools CNN Panel on Why Betty Shelby’s ‘Fear’ Was Not Reason Enough for Deadly Force

Posted byBy Ricky Riley | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

On the Sept. 23 edition of CNN’s “New Day,” commentator Harry Houck spars with former police officer Cheryl Dorsey over the Tulsa Police shooting of Oklahoma man Terence Crutcher.

Atlanta Black Star reported yesterday that Officer Betty Shelby will be charged with first-degree manslaughter for killing the stalled motorist.

On Friday, Sept. 16, Crutcher’s SUV stalled on a north Tulsa road. Officers were en route to a domestic disturbance when they encountered the 40-year-old.

In the clip, Houck does not believe Shelby should have been charged because all of the facts have not been released yet. He implies that Crutcher moved inappropriately and warranted a shot because Shelby was fearful.

“I don’t know, because I wasn’t right there,” Houck says. “All I know is that that man kept going towards the car and [Shelby] told him to stop, stop, stop.”

However, Dorsey believes Shelby made a mistake because the officer already stated there was no real danger.

“We now know for a fact, she’d already cleared the car,” Dorsey explains. “That means she rendered it safe. [It] means that there was nothing in that vehicle that was going to hurt her. That’s police jargon for, ‘I walked up to it as a police officer, I’ve looked in, there’s nothing that’s going to hurt me …”

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